NEW POD EPISODE! 🚨Women protesting for safer cycle routes - Laura joins a protest and the opening of a new cycle lane, and meets some people along the way shows.acast.com/streets-ahea...
This is awful news for anyone not in one of these hideous machines.
www.gbnews.com/lifestyle/ca...
This kind of car-centric infrastructure in a city centre is a relic of an experiment that went wrong. Big roads and mega junctions have no place in busy cities.
A good step is making crossing them in one go much easier.
But a better one is to remove them altogether.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Got something you'd like to ask Ned, Adam and Laura for a future podcast? They would love to (try to) answer them! Post said questions below, or you can email them to streetsahead@fusion-media.co.uk. Get in touch!
NEW POD EPISODE! 🚨 2026: the Journey so Far. @adamtranter.bsky.social @nedboulting.bsky.social and @lauralaker.bsky.social discuss local politics in the run up to the May elections, Ned's trip to India, and learnings from New York mayor Zohran Mamdani (& other mayors) shows.acast.com/streets-ahea...
100%
As one Special Advisor in the last Conservative government told me: “People know what a bus gate is and understand it. It’s the whole system of controlling how frequently people can travel that appears sinister.”
(I disagree but think the permit system gives ammunition to conspiracy theorists)
The only thing I would add to this debunking is to acknowledge that it is unusual to provide permits that can be used to bypass filters a certain number of times.
It sends out an odd message. Would have been better to have normal bus gates and fully stand behind the decision.
Our #RPUspecials joined @BrumPolice specials on Saturday evening for a Traffic Op, seizing 7 vehicles. 166 vehicles stopped, with 24 drivers reported for offences ranging from No Licence to No Seatbelt. Additionally, 32 drivers received education for varying offences.
Police in Birmingham held a roads policing operation, supported by volunteer Special Constables.
In one evening on one road, they pulled over 166 vehicles and took action in a staggering 1 in 3 stops.
Imagine if Roads Policing was properly funded!
Motonormativity is not clearing snow from the sidewalks and then doing an Instagram post telling pedestrians not to walk in the road.
David Frost Car-hating Labour must stop the nonsense. Britain’s roads are among the world’s safest Fatal accidents are now so low that every further reduction will come at steadily increasing cost
So obviously our Government has just launched a strategy, with the usual panoply of targets, plans and indicators, to deal with this utter non-problem. It’s obvious make-work for the transport minister, for the department’s civil servants, and for all the lobbyists and vested interests who hate cars and want to stop people moving around.
According to David Frost, a road casualty toll which involves an average of 80+ people *every single day* either dying or suffering injuries which could change their life forever is an "utter non-problem".
“Nobody will cycle in bad weather.”
The Netherlands:
The strategic road network is managed by a charity and relies on the goodwill of land owners for access. Some motorways will be muddy and flooded each winter.
Also
The strategic road network stops randomly at council boundaries and investment is where councils are willing.
(UK edition).
They say that they need to consider rehabillitation - which links into the motornormativity view that you cannot live a life without a car, and that driving is somehow some sort of right.
Example (watch video)
bsky.app/profile/adam...
The 4-year driving ban was within the sentencing guidelines.
Why should he ever be able to drive again, having shown such disregard for the rules of the road?
A new Government road safety strategy should enable wider use of lifetime driving bans.
Samson Leonard Biddle, 37, failed to stop for police, driving extremely dangerously. Eventually, tactical contact stopped him.
Upon being arrested, he refused to give a specimen.
You might not be terribly reassured to learn that he received just a 6-month suspended sentence and 4-year driving ban.
The Government's upcoming Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy 3 needs both investment and strategy. Seems like an obvious thing to say, but there's a risk it could lack both.
Talked about it here on @podstreetsahead.bsky.social 👇
Germany shifts over 2 million e-bikes every year. France: over 500,000.
Britain? It will be lucky to get to 150,000. Why?
Because people need to feel safe to cycle, and that requires serious and sustained government support, which has not been forthcoming.
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...
Health pledges top the list of Britons’ New Year’s resolutions for 2026
Cycling and walking could help deliver almost everything Brits say they want to achieve in 2026 — if we design streets to support them.
Getting fitter, losing weight, being healthier, saving money; enabling active travel quietly does all of it. With no gym contracts.
It’s time we stopped viewing driving bans like this. Cars are a dangerous weapon when used incorrectly. Upon release, he needs to travel to access work he can use other modes.
If this case doesn’t warrant a lifetime driving bans, what would?
You might think that a man who drove into 100 people, using his car as a weapon, would NEVER be allowed to drive again.
It turns out he will be able to, around three years after leaving prison by taking an extended retest.
Why should he ever be able to get behind the wheel again?
I really hate the platform but always try to communicate with people who don't necessarily share my views, so I stick with it. And I think there's a good right-leaning argument for active travel and walkable cities, so some stuff does get good reach there.
But, I am conflicted about it.
Active travel groups call for clear targets on walking and cycling in England Exclusive: Groups including British Cycling call for active travel strategy to be put on equal footing with road and rail
Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy 3 (CWIS3) Dear Secretary of State, Active travel directly advances all five of the Government’s missions — improving health, creating opportunity, delivering safer streets, driving economic growth and meeting our decarbonisation commitments. To realise this potential, the forthcoming Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy 3 (CWIS3) must move from good intentions to a clear, long-term, fully deliverable national plan comparable to other strategic transport programmes. Currently, CWIS3’s proposed objectives, “ensuring people are safe to travel actively” and “ensuring people feel it is an easy choice”, are open to interpretation and not measurable.
List of signatories
NEW: 50+ transport and health groups have written to the Government calling for clear targets in the upcoming Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy 3, as well as a comprehensive plan for a national active travel network, matching the long-term strategic focus given to roads.
“Moving to a situation where cars are not considered the fastest and most convenient mode of transportation will take ambition and imagination. But the alternative is a very expensive dependency, which clogs up the UK economy.”
theconversation.com/how-the-uks-...
Five years of inaction. Now what? 🤷
Living Streets' @tansbraun.bsky.social joined @adamtranter.bsky.social on @podstreetsahead.bsky.social to talk pavement parking https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adamtranter_pavement-parking-an-unhappy-fifth-birthday-activity-7400632118323863552-SYUU
Good on them for at least tackling it.
Worst birthday ever.
Leeds
